Almost 6

Normally, watching an individual time trial is like watching paint dry, less the excitement of the fumes. It takes forever, and since the racers are racing one at a time, there’s none of the pack dynamics going on, and other than the time checks, it’s hard to see how a rider is doing. But put a million people on the slopes of Alpe d’Huez, put Jan Ullrich in running several minutes behind, add Lance (who said earlier this year that you can only ride up Alpe d’Huez so many times in a day), and you’ve really got an exciting time trial. Lance punched it, pushing Jan 1:01 further down the list. The GC (general classification) has exploded – the no. 2 man, Ivan Basso, is 3 minutes 48 seconds behind, almost insurmountable at this point. And 10th place Levi Leipheimer (American, in fact) is 15:04 behind. That’s an incredible spread. The only thing that could prevent Lance from taking his sixth is disease or accident, and even then, it’s unlikely. (Where were you during the Cyclism?)